1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data acquisition and processing equipment for testing automotive vehicles, for example in a test center, a repair shop, or at the exit of production lines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a general rule, technical test centers are equipped with a certain number of benches which are occupied successively by a tester and his vehicle in order to subject this vehicle to various tests, measurements, checks, inspections, and so on. Test benches may thus be provided for skidding, suspension, front and rear braking, steering lock, and so on.
In the most simple installations, a tester moves with his vehicle from one bench to another, depending on the type of test to be performed and collects, after each bench, the data relating to the test which has been made. In test stations of this type, all testing equipment units are independent.
Computerized installations nevertheless exist in which several test benches are connected to a data-processing system which centralizes the data. At the end of a test path, the system delivers the final test results.
While these installations constitute an improvement in automobile testing, they are nevertheless subject to a disadvantage arising from the fact that the test path can be occupied by only one tester at a time. Indeed, if two testers were to test two vehicles simultaneously on the same path (on different benches), the data-processing system would fail to distinguish the data received and would be incapable of attributing these data to either of the two vehicles.
Installations are also known in which testers have at their disposal an acquisition and storage box which is plugged into a connector provided on each bench for collecting and storing data relating to the test which they have just performed on said bench. At the end of operations, the tester connects his box to a data-processing system and empties the entire contents of the box into the system. This latter can then carry out the processing operation and deliver the results of the tests performed.
However, this system is again subject to disadvantages arising from the fact that the data-processing system is not connected directly to the various test benches. It is therefore necessary to store the information relating to the various tests, thus entailing the use of costly control boxes, then to transport, the information, which is a potential source of errors. Furthermore, since the benches are not connected either to the data-processing system or to each other, it is not possible to choose beforehand certain types of tests for certain vehicles on certain benches and other types of tests for other vehicles on the same benches. Neither is it possible to guide the tester from one bench to another as a function of the tests to be performed and of the availability of the different benches of the installation.
Finally, transmission of certain results of a measurement from one bench to another is impossible. For example, the weight of the vehicle measured on the suspension bench cannot be transmitted to the braking bench, with the result that it is not possible to calculate the braking efficiency which is equal to the ratio of the maximum braking force developed on the four wheels of the vehicle to the weight of the vehicle.
The present invention is directed to equipment which overcomes these disadvantages and improves technical testing of automobiles. The invention in fact makes it possible to work with large-capacity installations having a plurality of test paths each constituted by a plurality of test benches, a number of testers being permitted to operate simultaneously on a number of benches of the same path or on different paths.
The invention achieves this result by making use of means which serve to identify the vehicle from which the data delivered by each test bench originate. In other words, when a vehicle is present on a test bench, the data delivered by the bench are addressed to a central data-processing unit and are accompanied by an identity datum which makes it possible to associate the data with the vehicle. Thus the central unit is capable of managing all the items of information which are addressed thereto irrespective of the number of vehicles under test.
These identification means are essentially constituted by a remote control box assigned to each vehicle, the function of the box being to remotely control the test operations while at the same time supplying an identity to the system.